A collapsible, coiled mandrel, for use in co-curing of a hollow carbon-epoxy structure such as a stringer in aircraft construction, is made of a fiber stiffened with doping material that maintains an outer coil shape resistant to external compression forces when used as a mandrel during lay-up and curing, and is collapsible when an end of the fiber is pulled along its longitudinal axis so that it can be easily removed after curing and discarded. A method of fabricating a collapsible, coiled mandrel employs a mold with a shaped recess for forming a coil with a fiber wetted with a doping material fed in by an applicator, and rotating the applicator while backing it out to form the coil in the mold. In an alternative embodiment, a collapsible, coiled mandrel may be formed of a metal coil having a mandrel-shaped cross section and sleeved in a protective liner.

A system for manufacturing a composite assembly includes a first mandrel, a second mandrel, a first wrap plate, and a second wrap plate. The first wrap plate and the second wrap plate are positionable in side-by-side relation for receiving a wrap material stack. The first wrap plate and/or the second wrap plate are translatable to a wrap plate open position defining a wrap plate gap between the first and second wrap plate surface edge for receiving a bladder. The second mandrel is translatable to a mandrel open position defining a mandrel gap between the first and second mandrel surface edge. The wrap plate gap and the mandrel gap are configured to receive the wrap material stack formed around a bladder. The first and second wrap plate are configured to fold a first and second material stack base portion into overlapping relation with each other on the bladder top.

Provided is a mold adapted for producing at least a part of a wind turbine blade, including a support and shell fixed to the support for accommodating blade building elements to be embedded in a resin matrix, wherein the shell includes at least one main body shell element and several diverse tip shell elements, which are exchangeably fixable to the support.

Provided is a mold adapted for producing a wind turbine blade, including a first carrier and a shell for accommodating blade building elements to be embedded in a resin matrix for building a blade body part, which shell is placed on the first carrier, and a second carrier changeable in its length and elongating the first carrier adapted to accommodate a prefabricated blade tip to be connected to the blade body part when the blade body part is built.

The invention relates to a frame (2) including at least one part that is intended to support a skin (3) for receiving a part made from a composite material to be polymerized in an autoclave, said skin (3) defining the general shape of said part. The frame (2) is characterized in that it is a single-piece foundry piece.

A mold device of related art has a problem that a total volume of the device becomes large. In an example aspect of the present disclosure, a mold device includes a fixed mold base for supporting a fixed mold, a mobile mold base for supporting a mobile mold, a frame to which the fixed mold base is fixed, provided to extend in a direction in which the mobile mold base is moved, and formed into a wall shape, and holding means for movably supporting the mobile mold base to the frame. The frame is provided along at least one side of the mobile mold base except an upper surface thereof with the mold device installed, and the holding means support the mobile mold base at one side of the mobile mold base.

The disclosed subject matter provides a system and method for facilitating bonding of various turbine blade components, including trailing edge inserts, or flatbacks, to the trailing edge of a wind turbine blade. The system disclosed herein ensures a consistent force is applied from root to top thereby preventing defects, e.g. paste voids, from forming. Additionally, a consistent bonding gap can be achieved due to the consistent application of force from the root to tip of the blade.

A mold conveyance guide apparatus includes: a linear guide that is attached along a conveyance direction of a mold to a mold attachment surface of at least one of a fixed platen or a movable platen to which the mold is fixed; a slider that is movably attached to the linear guide; and a coupling arm that is swingably attached to the slider in a direction coming closer to or separating from the mold attachment surface and is coupled to the mold in an engageable and disengageable manner.

This disclosure is directed to a thermoplastic composite material forming method and tooling used to perform the method. More specifically, this disclosure is directed to a method of fabricating large, complex thermoplastic composite part shapes with a consolidation tool having a conformable tooling bladder that heat thermoplastic material in the tool and provide thermoplastic material consolidation pressure in directions in the tool to form a part shape of thermoplastic composite material. A novel tooling concept is used to fabricate large, complex thermoplastic composite part shapes which are not easily producible using traditional methods. The tooling concept employs a consolidation tool that provides a method to apply thermoplastic material consolidation pressure by a conformable tooling bladder that provides thermoplastic material consolidation pressure in directions in the tool that are not achievable by conventional clamshell type molds where the mold parts move in substantially vertical tool opening and tool closing directions.

Disclosed herein is a tool for forming a composite part. The tool comprises a first layer, a second layer, spaced apart from the first layer, and a low-density core interposed between the first layer and the second layer. The low-density core has a density less than the first layer and the second layer and comprises a plurality of empty cells at least partially defined by the first layer and the second layer. The tool also comprises a heating source and one of: each one of the plurality of empty cells extends across a width or length of the first layer and the second layer; or adjacent ones of the plurality of empty cells are fluidically interconnected by a fluid port formed in the low-density core.